SAN JOSE, Calif., April 27, 2016 – Alien Technology, an industry leader in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Ultra High Frequency (UHF) products and services, today introduced the next generation of its industry-leading Higgs RFID semiconductor integrated circuit—
the Higgs®-EC IC—along with accompanying tags driven by Alien®’s new robust and reliable memory technology.

As the UHF Passive RFID market continues to grow at a 25 percent rate from the nearly 5 billion units shipped in 2015, more companies are relying on the quality of data that only RFID can provide. As a fundamental source of data for enterprises, the integrity of this data source is critical to realize the full benefits of RFID. Alien’s Higgs-EC IC provides enterprises unparalleled confidence in this stored data through Sentinel, a new Error-Correcting memory architecture that protects data at its source.

Higgs-EC’s Sentinel™ Memory is a unique error-correcting architecture that detects and fixes single data bits (cosmic rays, chip damage, etc.) and detects and flags rare dual bit issues—delivering a new level of reliability to the market.

The Higgs-EC IC also provides superior levels of robustness by providing the capability to write more than 200,000 times, twice that of devices on the market today. As a next generation architecture, Higgs-EC also provides the best-in-class read and write sensitivity that allows smaller tags to be designed, larger read & write distances to be achieved and more rapid reading and encoding. Finally, Higgs-EC provides both 128 bit EPC and 128b User Memory, so it is footprint compatible with Alien’s current Higgs-4 IC that will also remain in full production.

“After proving the effectiveness of Higgs-EC robustness, reliability and readability, several large Alien customers are already providing the world’s most sensitive tag solutions to the market based on Higgs-EC,” said Chris Chang, Alien Chief Executive Officer. “We expect Higgs-EC to accelerate the already rapid adoption of RFID into the retail market. The robustness, reliability and sensitivity of Higgs-EC also enables the tagging of more challenging categories such as jewelry, cosmetics and items with high fluid and metallic content.”

Leveraging the performance and capabilities of the new Higgs-EC, Alien is announcing the release and availability of the first inlays incorporating this new IC:

The Squiggle® tag (ALN-9840) is one of the industry’s most widely used and general purpose tags for item/asset tracking has been repurposed for Higgs-EC.

Squiglette (ALN-9830) is a narrower version of its high-performance, general-purpose Squiggle® tag sibling.

GT/Garment Tag (ALN-9828) is a 30mm x 50mm RFID inlay specifically designed for high read performance in the retail and apparel markets.

“We believe that providing a sense of reassurance to our customers about the quality of their data can only help the market and our RFID business,” said Pat Ervin, Alien Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing. “Customer testing of the Higgs-EC IC has confirmed it is highly sensitive and has a very fast read and write capability. We believe this will benefit customers by allowing them to encode RFID labels at a faster pace, thereby, allowing tags to ship to customers in a shorter timeframe. Higgs-EC will also enable more accurate cycle counts in large tag populations, and quicker ship and receive verifications will allow for increased efficiencies in Fast Moving Goods as they are tracked through supply chains and onto the store shelf. The extra memory afforded on the chip will also allow for customers to compete in new applications such as Loss Prevention and Anti-counterfeiting.”

The addition of Higgs-EC and the accompanying tags to the Alien family strengthens Alien’s commitment and leadership to bringing more advanced and innovative solutions to customers, enabling them to work smarter, faster and with the ability to achieve a higher ROI in their RFID implementations.

The Higgs-EC, and Higgs-EC based Squiggle, Squiglette and GT tags are available for immediate deliveries and will be on display and available for demonstration at RFID Journal LIVE May 3-5, 2016, in Orlando, Florida, at the Alien Booth (#404).

About Alien Technology

Founded in 1994, Alien Technology LLC is one of the industry’s most experienced, quality providers of Trusted Performance™ in RFID innovations, technologies and products. Alien provides UHF passive RFID transceiver chips, tags, inlays & labels, fixed & mobile readers and a full range of related professional services. Alien Gen 2 products, along with software solutions from partners, help solve business problems for customers to improve productivity, processes, security and asset tracking for closed-loop and supply chain systems. These solutions are implemented in industries such as consumer packaged goods, retail apparel, manufacturing, transportation, airports and cargo logistics, government and defense, and more. Alien’s facilities include corporate headquarters in San Jose, CA; the Alien RFID Solutions Center in the Dayton, OH region; and a sales office in Shanghai, China. Alien is a member of EPCglobal, GS1 and RAIN.

Alien, Alien Technology and the Alien logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Alien Technology Corporation in the United States and other countries.